AIK: Chapter 2 - Remember When You…
- Henry Livingston
- Dec 3, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: Apr 10
March 2021…
Alice is hanging out in one of the rooms of her suburban home in Jacksonville, Florida, where she is lying on her belly writing in a leather-bound book. There is a ring-tailed lemur sitting in a wingback chair across from her; he is in proper clothing reading: I and Thou, by Martin Buber. The room is filled with storybook memorabilia, mostly Alice in Wonderland, but sprinkled with Dune, Wizard of Oz, Hocus Pocus and Nightmare before Christmas. She is concentrating because her facial expressions are telling the world around her that she is dedicated to her entries. She wants the journal to stay true to her thoughts and keep secure the sacred and pure truths that leak from her brain into reality.
Dear Journal, Day sixty-six.
As you know, I have not had Kava since “the incident.” However, I have not found a suitable replacement for the way it made me feel consuming it. I really like the taste and I miss it something terrible. Like that boy that looked like Timothée Chalamet, who, by-the-way, I did not have a crush on, back before Covid struck the world. I would have gone out with him if he didn’t smell like cooked cabbage all the time. Is it too much to ask the universe for a pretty boy, or girl, who is intelligent and smells of Pistachio Macarons? I don’t think so, seems to be a reasonable request.
I…
Her cell phone rings, and the Lemur answers it, “Alice’s phone, Martin speaking,” there is a short pause, “very well, let me ask her,” he looks up to see Alice staring up at him, “it’s Geppetto asking to speak to you. Are you in?”
She hesitates for a moment, but eventually nods yes.
“One moment Geppetto,” he hops off the chair and hands the phone to Alice.
She has not spoken to her in almost three months because of her initiative-taking, cold turkey quitting of kava.
“Hey Geppetto,” she says trying to contain her excitement, “been good, You? Hmm? Of course, I will be there for your party. No, I will just be drinking tea thank you,” she yawns a little and continues, “You know I am not doing Kava since that crazy crap went down. Exactly. Ha-ha, kratom will not fix me either, nice try though. Mmm-hmmph, sure…, give me a couple of days. Talk to you soon – bye,” she ends the call and tosses the phone back to Martin.
“No more interruptions Martin. That means no more answering the phone when it rings, got it?”
“Got it,” Martin adds nodding his head.
The phone rings again.
“Alice’s phone, Martin speaking.”
“What did I just say?” Alice expresses in a heavy whisper through clinched teeth.
“Very well, let me ask her,” he looks over to Alice irritably staring at him again, “it’s Peia asking to talk to you. Are you in?”
Alice stands and snatches the phone from Martin’s tiny hands, “you already know the answer to that,” she puts the phone up to her ear, “Hey Peia, how is my favorite witch? Whoa, slow down! I’m on my way, be there in ten.”
Martin squints unsure of the situation, “Is everything okay?”
“I hope so. I’m heading to the café, see you later,” she leaves the house.
Martin sits back in his chair and continues in his book where he left off.
At The Kava Spot, Kava bar and grill, Alice enters to find that it is business as usual, “Peia!”
“Present,” a voice calls out from the back room, then a white raven flies in and shapeshifts into a youthful witch dressed from head-to-toe in white. She is being extra careful in not dropping the item she flew up to get to complete a drink combination she has been dying to create. She once overs the room to see Alice and smiles brightly, “Hey there gorgeous.”
“Right back at ya Peia. What is the emergency?”
Cassiopeia, or Peia to her close friends, finishes the mocktail concoction with a pinch of red kratom cast as glowing ball of light to add to the dog-and-pony show. The customer sitting patiently at the bar smiles in awe at the performance before her, then gladly accepts her drink, “this is delicious Peia!”
“Thank you beautiful,” Peia adds dancing toward Alice, “I didn’t call you sweetie. I haven’t spoken to you since The Incident,” she steps in a jubilant twirl to get closer, and lands just in front of the confused mademoiselle, “I’ve been making a drink that combines both Kratom and kava properties that respond as you require them. Energy when you need it while you are working, or studying, and a wonderful, Zen-like chill whilst you rest in between.”
“Then who called me?”
“I did,” she hears from the Alice in Wonderland tattoo that is waving to her from her left arm, “didn’t mean to mislead you, but I…”
“Hold that thought,” Peia whispers to excuse herself to see to another patron.
Alice shuts her eyes and shakes her head, “no-no-no-NO, I have not had kava for two months, so my tattoo cannot be talking to me, not again.”
“But I am,” the tattoo on her arm says walking down to her hand for a better look at her human canvas. A toadstool appears and the inked puppet begins dragging it behind her, back up to Alice’s forearm. The pain from it being dragged felt like a sharp fingernail trying to slice into Alice’s arm.
Alice opens her eyes and grimaces from the scraping. The animated tattoo notes her irritation, then continues, “I apologize for the slight discomfort this is causing my playground, but it is necessary to help you understand the importance of this particular conversation,” she plops down on the large, comfy mushroom top and bounces a couple times in glee, then stops when she realizes she is losing focus, “when last we spoke, you didn’t give me time to explain myself before you blew a gasket and blacked out. There is something I need to talk to you about Alice and it is important. So, get some kava and take a seat, this is going to take a minute.”
Alice sits, asks Peia for a manager’s choice drink and cuts a side-eye at the tattoo tapping her foot on her arm, “could you not do that please? I do not control how fast Peia makes my drink.”
“Sorry, that is my bad. I haven’t quite grasped ‘the time thing’ just yet. The foot tapping is something I just started doing without thinking to kill the time faster. That is remarkable if you think about it, considering that I have only been in existence for a brief time.”
“Yeah, I know, I was there too.”
“Ah, that is also accurate. Wait, we didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves? I mean, that would be the polite thing to do, don’t you think?” She pauses briefly, “I’ll start… my name is Eloise, but you may call me Ellie.”
“Eloise? I thought your name would have been…”
“Alice, right?” she shakes her head and makes a face, “sorry to disappoint, but I just look like the looking glass girl. I am my own person…kinda.”
“Oh, alright then. My turn I suppose, my name is Alice Tandy,” she says with a nod.
Ellie motions a curtsy without getting off the toadstool, “it is a pleasure to officially meet you, Alice Tandy.”
“Your Kava Kolada Alice,” Peia says placing the drink down on a drink napkin next to Alice.
Alice gives a quick glance to Peia, “thanks, beautiful,” then returns her gaze back to the mini moving picture on her arm, “It is nice to meet you too Ellie.”
“Now which do you want first,” Ellie opens with quite quickly, “the good news or the better news?”
“The… bet-ter news?”
“Okay. Here it is, I am not your average tattoo.”
“No shit Sherlock,” Alice voices mockingly.
“Sherlock? No, my name is...”
“I know what your name is. I was not calling you by someone else’s name on purpose, I…, you…, you know what? It.., umm, it was…,” Alice shakes her head and bites her lip, “never mind it was…, not important.”
“Are you confused about what my name is?”
“Not at all, I was being a bit sarcastic. I know that you are not the average tattoo because you are talking to me and moving around on my arm.”
“I thought all tattoos tell a story?”
“Yes, they do, but they don’t actually speak to you, or move around on your body.”
“They don’t?”
“No.”
“Do they tell you that?”
“They do not. They are simply pictures that speak a thousand words.”
“I thought you said they don’t talk?”
“They do this without talking.”
“Do they use sign language then?”
“You know sign language?”
“Of course, do you?”
“Yes, I do, but most tattoos do not move remember?”
“Oh yeah, right. Some tattoos cannot speak, some know sign language. Got it.”
“No. Tattoos don’t speak, move, or use sign language. They are just fancy pictures people get on their bodies to tell a story, without words, which have meaning to them specifically.”
“Well, when you put it like that, it makes total sense,” Ellie hops off of the toadstool, “I suppose I’ll have to show you what makes me better then,” she pulls an ink pen from her dress pocket and draws a smiley face in mid-air.
Brief discomfort returns to Alice’s arm and soon the Grin smiles wider, then opens to reveal very sharp teeth, “hello Alice,” it speaks as the rest of its body starts to form, “Ellie has told me so much about you, I am happy that we too get to meet. Well, kinda. I am not here, but I am talking to you, so maybe that is not as true of a statement as I wanted to begin with.”
“Eloise…, what did you do?”
“Wow, this must be serious, you said my proper name.”
“What did you do?!”
“Isn’t it obvious? I made another tattoo.”
“You can make other tattoos on my body??”
“Yep! Pretty cool, huh?”
“Yes, I mean, NO. You cannot just go around drawing tattoos on me all willie-nillie.”
“Yes, I can. Watch me - - “
“NO, don’t!”
“You said I can’t so I was gonna show you I can.”
“I know what you were going to do, but I don’t want you to.”
“Why not?”
“Because it is my body and I have a say in what goes on it.”
“That is a just argument,” Ellie pauses for a moment, “what if I ask you first to do it? If you do not want it, I will not make it. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“Can I?”
“No.”
“Dammit.”
The Cheshire cat’s smile appears on another part of Alice’s left arm, “Can I do it then?”
“No. Wait, can you create tattoos too?”
“By no means, but I wanted to play. I was beginning to feel left out,” its body disappears entirely.
Ellie raises her ink pen, “How about now?”
“No.”
“Then when?”
“When I say.
“When is that?”
Alice lowers her head and locks eyes with Ellie like a forbidding parent, “When… I… Say,” she takes a long sip of her drink, “mmmm, this is good stuff Peia!”
“Thanks,” Peia says pushing through the small talk of the café.
“Well, I made him,” Ellie continues quietly, “so I get to name him. His name is Elliott,” her head lowers because Alice is more interested in the drink than the talking magical tattoo on her arm, “If anyone cares,” she adds sadly. A moment passes and she decides to sit back down on the toadstool, then puts her pen back into her pocket.
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